American Ignorance

Photo credit: The Atlantic

Over the weekend, Jena Schwartz, my writing teacher highlighted a post from Desiree Lynn Adaway in which she shared these words:

“Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.” ~W.E.B. Du Bois

I stopped mid-scroll as I thought about the number of different ways I saw this quote play out last week.

I immediately thought about a recent on-line conversation in which I wrote of my continued shock when bad things happen in America. How I continue to think- ‘this is so un-American!’ Last week though, I was pushed to realize, that this thought, in and of itself, is ignorant. When you find yourself, over the course of a few months, noting how un-American multiple events are, those events might actually be ‘American.’ And did you see what I did there? I said ‘might actually be’. I was going to go back and edit those words but it makes sense to leave them as an example of how hard it is to break out of this place of ignorance.

If I ‘pretend’ that the white nationalists who erected the gallows on Capitol grounds and those who swung confederate flags in the Capitol and those that wore ‘camp Auschwitz’ sweatshirts are un-American, that is a way more comfortable place to be than to acknowledge that these people represent part of what it means to be an American today.

I remember years ago, my mother-in-law began talking about the anti-racism books she was reading. She used the phrase ‘white supremacy’ way too loosely for my liking at the time. I pushed back because in my mind, the people described in the paragraph above were ‘white supremacists’ but certainly this subset of America had nothing to do with me. Unfortunately though, events of the last five years, beginning with Trump’s birther-ism campaign tactics and ending with a racism-infused coup attempt proved me wrong. White supremacy has everything to do with me and with all white people who benefit from our white-ness and remain ignorant of these benefits.

Returning to W.E.B. DuBois… after reading this quote, I also thought about all the people, the huge number of people, whose ignorance allowed them to believe the lies that Trump and his supporters told them. Sure, I blame our education system in part. With the introduction of No Child Left Behind and the Common Core, schools have been forced to spend too little time on critical thinking and history and too much time on skills based instruction to boost standardized testing scores. But, as we learn more and more about the people who stormed the Capitol, we see that they are doctors and professionals with advanced degrees. Many of these people are well educated and financially secure. These people have been radicalized by Trump and by Fox News. They have been radicalized by the social media platforms that, until a few days ago, allowed Trump to lie, unchecked. They were just ignorant enough to believe the disinformation and conspiracy theories that Trump provided for them.

Where did this ignorance come from? I imagine this answer is as varied as the people who travelled to DC last week. And how do we move forward from this place? I wish I knew but I do believe the answers vary here too. May we find those answers and may we find them quickly.